To say that the Renbu system changes things is probably selling it short. Because the chain gauge is reset every time a character is hit, and because enemies are a little more prone to hitting, there's a constant risk vs. reward setup in how you engage enemies. Charging into a horde of foes in a base camp will let you quickly rebuild your Renbu Gauge (which drops quickly if you aren't fighting anyone, thus reducing the power and variety of your moves), but it also means a hit could completely break a chain.

Speaking of charging into bases, capturing points on the map is longer simply a matter of waltzing in and offing the Base Commander. Instead, the gate to a camp first has to be beaten down, and then a set number of enemies have to be killed inside the gates to claim it as your own. Yes, you can still whittle down the numbers needed to secure a base by taking out the major officers in it, but a little more destruction is needed this time around. The reward, like in past games, is a constantly respawning supply of health restoratives (though you can find those out in the wild too, hidden in big clay vases).

Though it's not exactly a constant tug-of-war for captured bases, your own facilities can be taken out in much the same way. Striding into any base will give you a number of troops needed to actually take it over, and every additional officer that's around will nudge the number up -- until they're defeated, of course. When coupled with, say, a bonus target that nets you 500 additional experience points for capturing it and another stronghold within the first five minutes of a battle, suddenly things are a little more interesting.

The bigger bases in the game, however, require a bit more strategy. Since the front gates are too strong for a lone soldier to break down (even one that can apparently kill a thousand enemies without breaking a sweat), defense captains have to be taken out to help battering rams break through. By the same token, scaling the castle walls via ladders (one of the minor additions to the game along with the ability to swim all over the place though that invites boat patrols to the party) and taking out the catapults and throngs of enemies defending things will speed the advancement of your forces.

At the game's core, though, we haven't seen too much that's different from before, and that's just fine by us. Sure, the characters may look a little different (and it seems like there's a bit more story for each of them this time around, judging by the number of cutscenes), but the core gameplay is still about wading through hundreds of enemies per minute, and now that the PlayStation 3 finally has its own dedicated DW game, those hundreds have plenty of room to look fancy. The core engine does add some better textures, smoother animation and more enemies from what we've seen, but it's also prone to some serious slowdown in parts. Hopefully that'll be fixed for the final release.

The voice acting likely won't, however, which means contending with plenty of repeated dialogue and wailing guitars, but fans of the series are more than familiar with this, and to be honest, we didn't find it quite as grating as in previous games, but it might be that next-gen sheen that everything sports. It certainly hasn't removed the game's ability to destroy productivity for hours on end, so take that for what you will.

With a little over a month until the game is completely wrapped up for US shores, we ended up pleasantly surprised at the tweaks that have been made to an all too familiar formula. The series' trademark addictive qualities and light RPG elements have been boosted quite nicely, not to mention an handful of welcome little additions. Unless something major changes between the build we have in the office and the one that ships to stores next month, it could very well be the best Dynasty Warriors game KOEI's ever produced. No, it probably won't convert newcomers in droves, but we'll happily admit it: we're hooked. Expect a full review here shortly.